The only things larger than the state budget in Trenton are the egos of Sen. Steve Sweeney, D-West Deptford and Assembly members Sheila Oliver, D-East Orange, and Lou Greenwald, D-Voorhees.

They listened to Gov. Chris Christie tell them how great they were and how courageous they were and how the “shared sacrifice” was the right thing to do — and they fell for it.

Even a novice negotiator knows you don’t sign off on the other party's part of the deal without an actual commitment from them on your deal ("Scorned by Christie, Sweeney unleashes his fury — Budget battle turns personal, and there may be no turning back," July 3). But because of their egos, they did — even while giving compassionate speeches as they sold the public workers down the river.

-- Jim King,
Hamilton

To check out candidates, we have to see them first

I went to the Cranbury library one afternoon this week, because a Times item headed “Campaign Capsules — Legislative library stops scheduled” had stated “Legislators in the 14th District will embark on a series of 16 outreach meetings at municipal libraries throughout the summer” and listed a Cranbury stop last Thursday from 1 to 4 p.m. Instead of legislators, I found a banner-covered table with neat piles of state literature and maps, and two pleasant young aides seated behind it.

Obviously, few folks are as gullible as I, as there was only one other person there but, if the rest of the meetings are to be similar, The Times might like to alert people not to expect their legislators if they go to the Monroe and Plainsboro libraries next week.

-- Florine Hunt,
East Windsor

Greenstein missed chance to show real leadership

I am responding to the letter "Greenstein's record supports workers — and they support her" (June 30), written by Sen. Linda Greenstein's spokesperson, which missed the point of the debate over the pension and benefits bill.

Benefits changes were forced on public employees because, for more than a decade, politicians such as Sen. Greenstein, D-Monroe, refused to insist that the state pay into the pension system. It took great fortitude and courageous leadership by Gov. Chris Christie to save the pension system so that generations of public workers, teachers, police officers and firefighters will be able to collect their pensions.

Sen. Greenstein could have stood up for public employees by making sure the state set aside money to protect their retirement. Instead, she voted for state budgets that did not make the needed payments into the pension system, which is the reason we are in this financial mess.

Anyone can speak at a rally, but protecting the pension fund would have required the senator to show leadership during the budget process for the past decade. Like other state lawmakers, Sen. Greenstein voted to spend money without planning for the future.

I find it odd that Sen. Greenstein needs a professional spokesperson to write letters supporting her. I hope that this November, everyone who is tired of the high taxes and broken promises from Trenton will join me in sending the Legislature a message by voting out the incumbents who continue to raise taxes on the hard-working residents of New Jersey.

-- Joseph R. Abbott,
Hamilton

For some, dental pain is an everyday reality

The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK) excellently supports 2,500 low-income and homeless people each year. While reading its summer newsletter, I was happy to hear it received a grant to provide much-needed dental care for some of its clients. One client had pain for five years and could eat only on one side of his mouth. So I was glad that help was on the way to others.

Until I looked at the numbers. The grant provides help to only 25 to 50 clients, so tough choices must be made as to who would continue to wake up each day with dental pain. Yet our lawmakers grapple with the choice of whether to raise taxes on millionaires and extend tax loopholes to profit-dripping oil companies. We've seen 10 years of George W. Bush tax cuts to the wealthy, allegedly to let prosperity trickle down to the poor. Where are those trickled-down health benefits for our fellow people in Trenton?

And what has the character of our American soul fallen to when our leaders passionately deliberate over making the rich even richer, while each day in our community people wake up with dental pain and must decide whether it is more or less painful to chew their food on the left or right side of their mouth? And passionate social workers agonize over who are the lucky few who will get help and the unlucky many who will continue to suffer in silence.

When will we start taking care of all Americans and not just the wealthy? Hopefully, one of the millionaires who has benefited so much from our 10-year tax giveaway can send a check to TASK so that all of its clients can wake up one day pain-free and perhaps finally be able to pursue their unalienable right to happiness.

-- Steve Cickay,
Newtown, Pa.

When it suits GOP agenda, subsidies suddenly aren't so bad

Reading about politics these days is amusing. Recent reports brought to mind the contradictions and lunacies of our political poseurs. We know that it is an article of faith in today’s Republican Party to proclaim the wisdom and importance of “free markets” and “competition” and to speak of taxes with disdain.

But stop the presses: On page A6 of The Times was an article in which Gov. Chris Christie objected to federal regulators limiting his option to subsidize the building of certain power plants ("Christie blames U.S. regulators for restricting power plant," June 9).

Why does the federal agency want to limit New Jersey’s options to subsidize specific plants? Because that would limit competition among all power plants in the system. But I thought Republicans were for competition and against subsidies. Well, maybe unless you’re Gov. Christie, when the public’s subsidizing his private and political travels on state helicopters is fine — until he is caught in a contradiction.

It appears that Republicans would like to stop subsidies when they support public employees or public goals, such as health insurance for all. But they are just fine with subsidies for guaranteeing loans to build private nuclear power plants or providing taxpayer subsidies to oil companies.

Thanks goodness we don’t have strict limits on funding for elections. Then all those amusing contradictions would tend to fade away and we would be left with dull, sensible public policies.

-- John W. Bing,
Ewing

Of course, alcohol causes injury

Actress Amy Locane told the truth ("Attorney: Locane's head injury may be a factor in her response to police," July 13), when she was arrested, because I suspect she was drunk enough at the moment to tell the truth. Duh. So, a "mitigating" factor is a head injury? That isn't news.

Strictly interpreting the phrase "brain injury," one might well say that drinking more than one glass of wine, one beer, one shot, then grabbing the car keys and making for the roads is the mark of a person with impaired (injured) judgment (the use of the brain to make decisions). Is an impairment an injury? I believe so.

Let's wait and see what the Superior Court does with this nonsense. After Lindsay Lohan's public debacle, judges might just be hip to this tricky line of slithery thinking.

Now then, who is being forgotten in this story? The widower and the slain woman, who was a wife, mother, sister, aunt. What price is to be set there? What message do we send? Is it consistent?